China's twin sisters Jiang Wenwen/Jiang Tingting failed to break Russian's dominance in the free duet preliminary but also advanced to the final with a second-place finish at the Shanghai worlds on Tuesday.
The Jiang sisters, who took a bronze of the discipline in Rome Championships 2009, lost to the old opponents Natalia Ishchenko/Svetlana Romashina again with 96.77 points.
The Russian ace duo, who was the defending champion, wowed audiences with a superbly executed routine and topped the 43-pair qualifying sessions in 98.49, nearly equalizing their winning score of 98.833 in Rome.
Spanish Andrea Fuents/Ona Carbonell finished third in 96.02. The final will be staged on Friday.